Albie fishing story

I want to tell a story about the fish I’m holding in the picture from yesterday. (It’s hard to tell here but this one was over 18 lbs easy)

I’ve long been a proponent of using a Crease Fly when chasing albies cruising beachfront in water less than 15 feet deep. Often, you will see the fish crashing bait from a ways off, hustle over to where they are and the action will drop off as soon as you get there. It’s not that the fish have gone away, it’s just that they are moving around for another pass at the minnows. In this situation I will cast a Crease Fly even if the action has been done for a while. The albies are cruising in the shallows looking for something. The popping noise will bring up fish that are happening past. You know they are in the area, you just can’t see them. The strikes are pretty dramatic as the fish will roll over on the popper like Bruce the Shark rolled over on Timmy Kintner in Jaws. That’s what happened a few times on Sunday. Each time it was a surprise as I got hooked up when there were seemingly no fish busting and no action apparent. I guess the lesson here is persistence and to think outside the box of what other people might be doing.